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FACILITIES - Computing Policies

The Film & Digital Media Department (FDM) Computer Lab and Editing Suite use policy consists of the following rules and policies. F&DM students will be responsible for abiding by these rules and policies. Any student found in violation may lose their Lab and Editing Suite privileges, as well as a temporary or full suspension of their UCSC account.

The Basics

  • No food or drink in the Lab or Editing Suites.
  • No disruptive behavior.
  • No moving of equipment and/or re-routing of cables.
  • No laptops on the wired network (exception: Instructors for instructional purposes). It's OK to have laptops in the Lab and be on the wireless network. If you need to arrange for special circumstances please contact FDM Operations.
  • No illegal copying of ANY materials. (UC Copyright Policies)
  • Use headphones to monitor sound, no audible playback at lab stations.
  • The Lab and Suites are for Film & Digital Media Department undergraduate students enrolled in specific courses, graduate students, staff and faculty ONLY, except by special arrangement. We reserve the right to check IDs.
  • No printing is available from workstations in the Lab or Editing Suites.

Access Policy

  • Film & Digital Media instruction and coursework has priority over all other Lab uses.
  • Students working in the F&DM computer lab must observe and respect the class/seminar schedule. Class schedules are posted on the door to the lab, and on the Slugfilm Room Reservations. All students must finish their work and vacate the lab 10 minutes before the start of a scheduled class or seminar.
  • The Lab and Editing Suites are open during the fall, winter, and spring academic terms (10 weeks of instruction and 1 week of finals) and portions of some summer sessions. Editing Suites are open to faculty, staff, and graduate students 365 days/year.
  • During open access times, the Lab is available to all currently registered F&DM students. Students may be required to show proof of current registration (a student ID card with current quarter registration sticker).
  • Students who have a scheduled class or section in the Lab, or whose coursework requires specific software or hardware, have priority over other students. Students needing to do coursework requiring specific software (Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, etc.) or hardware (VHS transfer station) have "bumping rights" over users of more generally available software or hardware (e.g. Web browsers, etc.).

Audience and Intended Use

The Lab and Editing Suites are maintained for the instructional and coursework needs of the faculty and students in the Film & Digital Media Department at UCSC. The Lab is also available to F&DM sanctioned groups on a complete cost recovery basis. User IDs may be checked to enforce these restrictions.

Contents and Configuration

  • A description of the hardware and software configuration is accessible to lab users.
  • All system and application directories or folders are write-protected from users. Unless pre-arranged by the Instructor for course related work assignments, students are not provided writable space on the fileservers and are expected to store their files on removable media (external hard drives, thumb drives, etc.). For course related work, where students are authorized by their Instructor to store files on the fileserver, the user-writable directories or folders are treated as temporary storage and are not backed up.
  • Each Lab station has a hard drive partition for temporary storage labeled TEMP. Data stored on this partition is available only from the Lab station on which the original storage took place, is not backed up, and will be erased when capacity is reached or at the end of the quarter--whichever comes first. Any data found on the TEMP partition in violation of stated rules and policies will be deleted immediately.
  • Additional software or hardware needed in the lab must be provided and/or specially requested by the Instructor, then approved and installed by the Lab Administrator. Approval must be obtained 4 weeks in advance for hardware or software requiring purchase (by the instructor or F&DM Operations), and 1 business week in advance for all other requests. By default, specially requested software and hardware is kept in the lab for one quarter. Special requests for extended support will be accommodated to the degree possible given other demands on support staff and lab resources (e.g. disk space).

NOTE: The Operations staff is only responsible for the installation of Instructor requested/supplied hardware or software. It's the Instructor's responsibility to verify the functionality of such hardware or software, and to support students in its use. The Operations staff will not be responsible for, or support, student owned hardware used in the lab. Financial liability for any damage caused by a student while interfacing his or her own hardware to F&DM department owned hardware in the lab, no matter what the cause of the damage, falls to the student. Additionally, students must confirm the legality of any software contained or used on their equipment.

UC Policies

UCSC Policies